


Paint It Red

by Leyenn



Series: Kinktober 2020 [6]
Category: Stargate - All Media Types, Stargate SG-1
Genre: Blow Jobs, Established Relationship, F/M, Fingering, First Period, Hurt/Comfort, Kinktober, Kinktober 2020, Masturbation, Menstrual Sex, Menstrual blood, Menstruation, Multi, OT3, Oral Sex, Period Sex, Polyamory, Polyandry, Threesome, Threesome – F/M/M, Vaginal Sex, menophilia, menstrual cramps
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:40:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26599204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leyenn/pseuds/Leyenn
Summary: Sam and her boys figure out what works when she's on her period.Prompt: menophilia.
Relationships: Samantha "Sam" Carter/Daniel Jackson, Samantha "Sam" Carter/Daniel Jackson/Jack O'Neill, Samantha "Sam" Carter/Jack O'Neill
Series: Kinktober 2020 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1911157
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	Paint It Red

**1.**

"Is there any truth to the orgasm thing, or is that just an urban myth?"

Curled up on the couch beside his head, Sam opens her eyes again and frowns sleepily. "Hmm?"

"The theory that having orgasms reduces menstrual pain. Is there actually any basis in reality, or is that just something a guy made up to get past the 'no sex, it's that time of the month' barrier?"

Sam huffs quietly, closing her eyes again. "No, it's true. Something about the muscle contractions, I think. And those lovely endorphins, of course." 

He nods. Biology was never his strongest science, but that makes logical sense. He shifts around to face her properly, crossing his arms on the edge of the couch. "Do you want one?"

"Hm?"

"An orgasm. Or two, or…" he waves a hand. "However many. I mean, I'm guessing it's not like taking extra Naproxen, but if more is better?"

Sam laughs a little more loudly this time. "I don't know how you don't have women falling all over you with smooth talk like that."

"I don't want women falling all over me," he says, easily. "Or men, for that matter. I'm happy right here. I just thought, if it might help?"

She props her head up on one hand and reaches out to cup the other against his cheek. "You're so sweet, Daniel." 

He covers her hand with his and kisses her wrist. "I love you. I know it's not exactly a gunshot wound, but I still hate that you're hurting and I can't do anything."

"You can, if you really don't mind." She says it a little hopefully. He smiles back the same way.

"Yeah?"

"I'm not really up for any foreplay," she adds, apologetically. 

"Every man's dream, apparently," he says, teasing, and slides his hand past the waistband of her pyjamas as she smiles.

"What did I do to deserve you?"

"Oh, a whole lot of things, knowing you." He's getting used to how Sam's body feels – and isn't that the most amazing thing, that he gets to know that at all – but it's still a little new each time, and this is definitely more so than usual. She's switched from a tampon to a pad now they're off duty for the night, and there's more blood than he expects; it's immediately so slick that he can't get his fingers where he wants them. "Wow, okay, that's…"

Sam puts her head back down on the throw pillow. "If it bothers you-"

"No, no." He smiles reassuringly, strokes her hair back with the other hand. Changing tactic seems in order so he just lets his fingers slip all the way, dip gently into her instead, and reorients himself from there. "Not at all, it's just a little different. A bit harder to keep up my lothario image," and that does the job, makes her giggle.

"Don't worry, I won't tell Jack you couldn't find it."

"I know where it _is_ , I just," and then he's got two fingers on her clit and Sam lets out a little gasp that makes him smile triumphantly. "There we go. Just had to adjust course, that's all." He starts up a gentle rhythm, aiming for a steady pleasure rather than teasing too much. "How's that, that feel okay?"

"Mmmm…" She shifts her hips a little, settling into the pace with him. "Yeah, that's good."

"Then I'm just gonna keep going like that." If he's right it's not going to take long, anyway, at least for the first one, given her clit is hard and swelling under his fingers already. He's never thought about it before, but menstrual blood seems to make for a fantastic lubricant. It's more about keeping his fingers in place than anything else, and she's so slippery, so warm. "If you need me to change it up, just say."

"Mmm, no, you're good, you're – mm, you're really good," and somewhere in there she's started meaning it as a compliment, he's pretty sure. He grins and leans in to kiss her. The angle is odd, his mouth at right angles to hers, but it's enough to make her smile all the same. 

"You know, in many ancient cultures, menstrual blood has supposedly magical powers. In Ra's time you'd be considered something of a sorcerer right now."

Sam laughs, a little breathless already, rocking her hips into his hand. "Oh, really?"

"Mm-hmm. In Greece they'd collect the blood and spread it on the fields to encourage a good harvest, though I suppose there's a modicum of science behind that one at least. And the Cherokee believed a menstruating woman was infused with sacred power to destroy their enemies."

"Mmm…" Her thighs clench around his fingers. "If – _oh_ – if only that were true."

"Oh, I don't know." She looks beautiful, like this. He always thinks so, but he's not usually so focused purely on her, at least not by this point. That's something he definitely needs to do more of. "You seem pretty sacred to me right now."

Her fingers dig into his neck, her eyes fluttering closed. He can feel her clit straining under his fingers. "Mmm, okay I take it back, that's some pretty smooth talk…"

"Pretty powerful, too," he adds, dropping a kiss to the inside of her wrist. "That's it, Sam, I want you to come for me, would you come for me? It feels like you're close, do you want me to go faster?"

"Mm, no, no just – just like that, _oh_ ," and he feels it, that moment of perfect tension before she's falling, gasping and pushing against his fingers as she comes. It's so incredible to watch - the look on her face and the way her body moves, sinuous and desperate; the sound of "oh, oh god, _Daniel_ don't stop, don't stop…" 

As if he could, he thinks. As if he'd ever want to stop making her look and sound and feel like this. "Only gonna stop when you tell me to," he promises, and he means it quite literally. "I'm all yours, you just keep going, that's it, just like that." He's aware that he's mostly murmuring nonsense now, but he's always been a talker during sex and apparently this counts. "You're gorgeous," he murmurs, wanting to tell her, needing to. "You always look amazing when you come."

"Oh…" Sam shudders, her grip going tight behind his neck. "Daniel," she gasps out, and he leans in closer.

"You gonna come again?"

"Yeah – oh, oh oh _oh_ god…"

It's harder and louder than the first, but just as stunning to watch, and she's not even done before he's pretty sure it's building all over again. If he thought she was wet before, now it's actually a challenge to keep his circling fingers from slipping off her clit, to keep the pressure where he knows she wants it. He can't help thinking about what she must taste like right now, blood or no blood, and when he whispers that little secret it's enough to send her straight over the edge again with a soft, helpless cry, her whole body jerking against his hand.

It seems to go on for an infinite length of time, just watching the pleasure take her, but eventually she gets her hand on his wrist which he figures means stop, so he carefully stills his fingers. She's trembling, breathing hard, but he's pretty sure those endorphins have properly kicked in from the look in her eyes when she opens them to meet his. 

He offers her a hopeful smile. "Was that okay? I'm pretty sure I could do that for days, so if you want more…"

She smiles and tugs at his neck. "Oh, come here," and when he leans in the rest of the way she sits up and kisses him, deep and slow. "Thank you," she murmurs into his mouth, and he has to laugh.

"Any time. Quite literally any time." He moves his hand back, trying not to tease without meaning to, but he can't quite help taking the moment to tug gently at the wet curls under his fingers. Sam hums quietly and rolls her hips with the pull of it, settles back with a relaxed sigh as he lets go. He smiles, kisses her again. "I hope it helps."

"Oh, I definitely feel better." She makes a face as he extricates his hand. "You should go wash that off."

"I will." He's not in a hurry, though. It's not as if he's never had blood on him before, even Sam's blood, and this is by far the most pleasant way he's ever managed it. 

He rubs his fingers together. The texture is different to actually bleeding, not as consistent; thin streaks have settled in the creases of his fingerprints. The color isn't all the same, either, a bright striking scarlet with thicker spots of dark red, drying like the deep red of cochineal down the length of his fingers and across his palm.

"It figures you'd be fascinated," Sam says fondly. 

"Well, it is fascinating." He turns his hand around, intrigued by the pattern of it, the somehow delicate splash that's made its way all the way down the swell of his thumb. "Ah, unless you mind?"

"I think you're weird," she says, amused. "It's less interesting when it comes round every month, trust me."

"I guess I'll get used to it, then," he says, without really thinking about the words until Sam smiles at him like that. "Oh, I just meant-"

She leans over and kisses him again. "I know," she murmurs, sounding about as giddy with joy as he feels, still, every time. "I know what you meant."

  


* * *

  


**2.**

"Carter." He's not sure why they're even talking about this. "If Daniel doesn't care, why do you think I would?"

"Daniel finds it fascinating."

"Of course he does." He runs his fingers up her ribs, back to find the hook of her bra. "I'm not sure I'm quite at the level of fascinated, but I definitely don't have a problem with it. In fact I'd say I have a problem with _having_ a problem with it." They get little enough time for anything as it is, he's not adding another complication into the mix, especially one so ridiculous. "It's not like sex is tidy anyway, a little more mess isn't going to bother me."

Sam grins. "Well, okay, then. Good." She shrugs out of the straps and lets him tug her bra out from between them, and then he's pushing her back against the bed and sliding down. She has absolutely perfect breasts – that's one thing he and Daniel can always agree on, and one where he does share Daniel's fascination. They're so sensitive, too, all the more so the more time and attention they get, which just feels like a gift from the universe over and above everything else.

He flips a coin in his head and goes left, and gets an immediate gasp in response. A few playful flicks and some gentle sucking is all it takes to get her nipple tight and hard under his tongue, and after whole minutes of just that she's moaning quietly and her fingers are in his hair, digging in every time he gets his teeth involved or sucks a little harder. 

"Oh… _oh…_ " He nips lightly again, tugging, and Sam pulls a little more firmly at his hair. "Jack, stop," and he's barely heard it before he pushes himself up onto his forearms above her.

"You okay?" She's usually more than happy with that for a pretty long time, and he doesn't think he did anything different…

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good." She smiles, fingers stroking down the back of his neck. "That's just a little… too good, right now."

"Ah." He steadies himself on his elbows, trying to make sure he's not going to brush against her. "Sensitive?"

"Mmm." She looks amused. "The things you still didn't know about me, huh?"

He chuckles, resisting the urge to duck down and kiss her, but not by much. "One of my favorite topics to research," he teases back, toying with her hair. "Time to switch things up a little?"

"That okay?"

He's not completely sure she's with the program, here. "Sam, I'm naked in bed with you. Trust me, _anything_ is okay."

She laughs mischievously, something dark and playful in her eyes. "That's quite a statement." 

"I stand by it." Her hands are doing mesmerising things up and down his spine, and frankly he can't think of anything she'd want to do that he wouldn't wholeheartedly endorse right now. "Anything else I should steer clear of?" He brushes his fingers lightly down the side of her neck, deliberately teasing. Oh yeah, that's a little tidbit of research from Daniel that's worth remembering, the way she shivers at that. "Or anything I shouldn't?"

That mischief is practically sparkling. "No, I think you had it right... anything is okay."

"In that case…" He grins and rolls off her, stroking his hand down to slide suggestively under her thigh and hitch her leg over his. "How about you get up here and make a mess of me, Major?"

God, he _loves_ the way she laughs when she's happy. Even more when she's happy and naked and damned turned on.

"Yes, _sir_ ," she says, beautifully wicked, and pushes herself up to straddle him. His hands settle on her waist and Sam rocks herself against him, a long, slow roll of her hips that pushes her ass back against his swelling cock and leaves a wet smear of pink low on his stomach.

Before he thinks, he's dipping his fingers into it, spreading it over his skin. Sam makes a sound somewhere between surprise and satisfaction. 

"You weren't kidding. About the mess," she adds, smiling, when he raises an eyebrow. Her voice drops into that gorgeous low tease he's never going to get enough of, and she rubs against him again, this time infinitely more deliberate. "Do you like that? Do you want me to just," another roll of her hips, further back, and _fuck_ she's so wet as she rubs down the length of his cock, "do this…?"

"Not _just_ that," he says, honestly. She's rubbing back and forth on him now, slow but without stopping, up to his navel and back down until he's so, so nearly inside her… and then back again, dragging a groan from his throat. "God, Sam…" She's _so_ slick against him, he can't tell if it's all blood or not and he doesn't care at all. He's pretty sure he underestimated himself – the mess isn't just not a problem, the more she makes the more he's going to like it. "Daniel was right," he says, rocking up to meet her. "Mmm, you feel incredible."

Sam laughs, without stopping. "You talked about this?"

"He finds it _fascinating,_ " he reminds her. "Didn't quite believe him, but _Jesus_ …"

She slides back again, pushing her weight down, pressing harder along the length of him. "Oh?" 

He can't see between her thighs from this angle but he can imagine it, how he probably looks right now, smeared red and hard enough to explode if she doesn't move things along soon. "How wet you are already," he says, groans at another slow, hard, delicious tease – and then she tilts her hips just enough and he's sliding easily inside her, so smooth and tight and easy. "Ah, yeah, _Sam…_ " 

Now if he looks down he can see it, the streaks of pink and red all over his stomach and groin, the deeper red around the base of his cock every time she pushes up and then fucks herself down onto him again. She's moaning each time, a sound that's so quickly getting higher and more desperate, and it hits him that _sensitive_ might be a little wider in scope than he realised.

"Sam." He thrusts up to meet her as she pushes down, and she almost whimpers at the added depth. "Think you can come just like this? Even if I don't touch you?"

She nods, breathlessly and half-frantic, and he feels a feral rush of adrenaline burn up his spine. 

He grabs for her hands, wrestles his fingers between hers. "Hold onto me," he gets out, hears his own voice going unsteady. "Go as hard as you want, go on, come on, Sam, god, you feel so good, you look –" but his tongue trips and his brain short-circuits right there, because there aren't words to express what she looks like. She's a fucking goddess in human form, wanton and confident and _taking_ ,grinding down hard onto his cock with a rough gasp each time he bottoms out. Her eyes are bright, even with her pupils wide; locked onto his own as tightly as her fingers between his. This silent communication they have is just as good for this as it is in the field, driving together toward the hot, brilliant release he can feel coming closer and closer - 

"Oh - there, right there, _oh_ -" and Sam goes tight around him, so close to coming apart. He tries to hold that angle, desperately trying to hang onto whatever it is that's perfect enough to take her over the edge - and he's rewarded for the effort by a quiet cry and Sam's orgasm hitting like a truck, her whole body arching, so strong and beautiful it shoves him right up against that same edge with her.

" _Fuck_ – _Sam –_ " 

She clenches around his cock and moans, still moving on him and oh _fuck_ , she's not done, she's chasing it all over again before she's even finished – shaking, panting, her head thrown back and fingers pressing at his knuckles, and somewhere in there is his breaking point. He comes _hard_ , bucking roughly into her, and only harder when Sam puts all her weight back on her heels, gives him everything she can to thrust against and takes it eagerly, like she can't get enough of him coming inside her, like she can't possibly take him in deep enough – 

He's pretty sure everything goes white for at least a second. When he remembers to breathe and opens his eyes, Sam is gazing down at him, her fingers still locked between his and her chest heaving. He's still inside her, they're messy and sticky and it's fucking perfect. 

"Come here," he says, roughly, tugging at her hands. She actually looks reluctant to move off him, for a moment; then she laughs shakily and lowers herself down to his side, a hot and gloriously sweaty weight with her thigh still thrown over his hips.

"I love you," she whispers in his ear. She sounds breathless and wrung out, and loving every second.

He nuzzles her throat, finds her hammering pulse with his lips to press a kiss there. "Mmm, I damn well hope so after that."

She laughs, wraps her arm around his chest. "It was pretty incredible." Then, mischievous, a little teasing, but mainly curious; "You really never had sex with Sara on her period?"

"She never wanted to. Didn't want to make a mess, I guess." He grins, sharing her obvious amusement at saying that with her blood smeared all over his belly and cock and thighs, her wet sex still pressed against him. "She wasn't comfortable with me seeing the blood. Never got the problem, myself, but I wasn't gonna push."

Sam lifts her head to look him in the eyes again, at that, and her look is something so intimate and compelling it takes his breath away. "I don't have anything to hide from you," she murmurs, touching his lips with the pad of her thumb. "Either of you. You can see anything you want of me." She smiles. "There's not much left that you haven't by now, anyway."

She's right, and he loves her for it. All of her. "Right back at ya," he murmurs, and Sam kisses him with that same smile.

  


* * *

  


**3.**

****Sam flops down on her back on the bed, just barely manages to remember to drag the towel with her and avoid making any more mess than they already have, which is a fair amount. Her chest is heaving and she's beyond light-headed – her whole body feels like it's sparkling, and she couldn't stand up even under threat of court martial or firing squad.

Jack kisses her thigh, playful and grinning when she jerks up at the touch of his tongue even just there. "Oh, god, don't."

He laughs, pulling back to look up across her. "Nice work, Danny boy." 

Daniel rolls onto his side and grins. "Team effort, I think."

"Sorry," she gasps, between trying to catch her breath. Daniel laughs, disbelieving.

"For what? That was _incredible_." He trails a finger down her stomach, teasing, and looks ridiculously proud of himself when she starts panting all over again the closer he gets to her sex. "I don't think I've ever made someone come like that before." That one finger slips further, brushes her clit and she gasps again, pushing at his wrist. 

"Daniel! God, stop, I can't."

He pulls his hand back and leans in to kiss her instead. "You're such an ego boost," he murmurs, laughing again. His lips are soft and warm on hers.

"You're not done," she says, which is a stupid thing to say, really, because he must be painfully aware. His cock is twitching, leaking and heavy and red even under the glistening scarlet of her blood all over it, and his breathing isn't that much steadier than hers.

"Easily solved," Jack puts in, and shoves Daniel's hip to push him down onto his back again. In a smooth forward dive he sprawls out from where he's sitting between her legs, over her thigh and Daniel's, and wraps a hand around Daniel tight enough to make him thrust straight up with a hot moan. "My turn," he says, a low growl with that devilish glint in his eyes when he looks at her, and licks a broad clean stripe right up the underside of Daniel's blood-streaked cock.

"Oh, my god." She loses the ability to breathe all over again, staring at him in awe. It's hardly the first time they've all mixed bodily fluids, even actual blood, but seeing _that_ …

Jack grins, and shrugs. "Doesn't taste much different. Kinda metallic, that's all." He's stroking, now, slowly, red smears all over his fingers as Daniel rocks up into his grip. "Want me to clean you up?"

"Oh, yeah." Daniel gets both elbows underneath himself and drops his head back, groaning and thrusting into Jack's hand. "Yeah, go for it. Mmm, make sure Sam gets a good view."

"You're both crazy," she says, heat pooling back between her thighs. They're also both fully aware, she knows, that watching Jack go down on Daniel – or vice versa, or on one particularly memorable occasion so far, both at the same time – is something she really likes, so of course they'd find some way to make it hotter.

"Hey, you heard the man," Jack says, mouth barely an inch from the head of Daniel's cock, red and ready in his fist. "Look at him covered in you," he murmurs, looking right up at her, and her skin goes hot with something that's only partly a blush. She imagines she can taste it, too, that iron tang that's her blood on his tongue. "I guess I should get to work, huh?"

"Definitely crazy," she mutters, and Jack grins.

"Completely cracked," he agrees, with enthusiasm, and takes Daniel in his mouth.

Daniel moans, grabs for her with messy fingers. "Sam, come here, come – _oh_ fuck," as Jack sucks, hard enough to hollow his cheeks, and she can tell he's doing something wonderful and creative with his tongue into the bargain. " _Sam…_ "

This thing between them seems so natural already, so normal, that she forgets sometimes how not-normal it is, in purely statistical terms. Sleeping between two other warm bodies, kissing two different mouths, having the luxury of two men inside her at once any time she likes. She forgets there was ever a time when she'd have found it strange or shocking to see this in her bed.

They're gorgeous, her guys. She's always found them both attractive, but for so long she never thought of the picture they'd make together _,_ and it's stunning.When there's a moment like this, when they could easily be an image from Daniel's Greek textbooks or some ancient statue carved out in marble - that's when it suddenly hits her that this is realall over again, and they literally take her breath away. 

The way Daniel _looks_ – long and beautiful, all smooth skin and stretched out muscle, long legs and strong chest and bared throat, softly parted lips and dark lashes fluttering against his cheeks... and _Jack_ , curved over him and around him, power and pure intent in the set of his shoulders and his hands on Daniel's body, the unguarded look on his face with his mouth smeared red around Daniel's cock, eagerly taking him in…

She rolls back close to them, pushes Daniel down against the bed to get her mouth on him, too. Daniel moans louder at her tongue on his nipple, his fingers seeking across her skin.

"Mmm – oh, yeah, that's good…" She tugs lightly with her teeth and he gasps, thrusting harder into Jack's mouth. "Ah _fuck_ , Sam!"

She's stroking her hand across his chest, down his torso, up his ribs; her fingers brush Jack's, wrapped tight around Daniel's hip. Jack pulls off with a wet sound that makes Daniel arch up, shaking, pushing, seeking.

"Jack, _please_ …"

"Not done yet," Jack says, wicked and grinning. "Not got you all clean yet," and Sam can't help but look to see it's true – there's less blood now, but still tell-tale streaks and the wet glint of red mixed with Jack's saliva and what's already leaking from Daniel too.

"Gonna finish up now," Jack says, flashes her a grin and then sticks his tongue out. She can see her own blood striping his tongue, and that shouldn't be as erotic as it is but she doesn't care, not when it all feels so good. Jack works long, full swipes around only the head of Daniel's cock, then licks into the slit and all around under the head with the tip of his tongue, and all the time he's making those sounds that leave no doubt at all how much he's enjoying himself while Daniel sounds like he's slowly going insane with need.

"Ah, oh, oh oh oh…" He's writhing into Jack's hand with every lick. " _Oh_ , fuck, Jack, come on…" His cock is jerking against Jack's laving tongue. "You're done, _fuck_ , come on, I need to come…"

Jack licks up the length of him again, to one side and then the other, ignoring Daniel's moans and looking at her with mischief in his eyes. "Mmm. Am I done, Sam?"

She smiles and rubs her thumb against the corner of his mouth, wiping off a smudge of dark red. It's still damp when she rubs her fingers together.

"You missed a spot," she says, and deliberately smudges it down Daniel's length again.

Daniel groans, twitching at the touch of her fingers. Jack grins.

"Damn. Guess I should get that, too." He grabs her wrist, pulls her hand to his mouth and licks her fingers clean. "Mmm, y'know, I could get used to this."

"You're in luck, it happens every month." She wipes fingertips around his mouth, down his chin, offers them back against his lips. 

Jack's eyes glitter with dark, delighted arousal as he sucks her fingers into his mouth; Daniel groans a last "oh, _fuck_ ," and then he's bucking into Jack's hand, coming in fast, sharp bursts just from seeing that.

Jack drops his head and slides Daniel's cock back into his mouth, takes him in deep and smooth and starts to swallow, and Sam gets the raw pleasure of not just watching that but hearing, feeling, Daniel completely come apart. He's shaking when Jack finally lets him go, chest heaving against her hand with both of his own fisted into the sheets. 

Jack grins wickedly, obviously as pleased with himself as Daniel was with her. "So, purely out of interest, how is it we never come across any of those blood-powered cultures of yours?"

Daniel somehow manages to laugh through his gasping for air. "Be careful what you wish for, Jack."

"Worked out okay so far," Jack says, grinning, and starts to kiss his way up between them.

  


* * *

  


**4.**

"So, remember when you said…"

" _Ah._ " He gives Daniel the warning finger. It's been a while since he had to, but this one makes up for the absence. It's possible Daniel wasn't actually about to finish that sentence, but he does not need to take the chance. 

Daniel subsides, but there's amusement and _really, Jack?_ in his eyes. Jack scowls at him.

"What I want to know is, how do they _know_?"

"Female intuition?"

He snorts. "Wow, do you have a death wish."

"I was kidding." Daniel shrugs. "I don't know, some kind of advanced sense that we don't have? I mean, menstruation changes hormone levels, pheromones, body weight, scent… if these people really have made this a central element of their culture for thousands of years, it stands to reason they'd have developed a better way to identify when it's happening, or going to happen."

"Or they took a wild guess."

"Or that." Daniel runs his fingers lightly over the next linen panel of symbols he's trying to translate. "This language really is fascinating. It has elements of Old Norse structure, like the Asgard, but it seems to be almost entirely pictographic…"

Jack's ears prick up. He's learned a Pavlovian response to specific words in Daniel's ramble over the years, and pictographic is one of them. "Like hieroglyphs?"

"Hieroglyphs are actually more logographic. This is more like totemic symbology." 

"Like, totem poles, totemic?"

"A long way removed, and much more complex, but yes." Some of the footsteps outside are heading their way, suddenly: Daniel drops his hand to his sidearm, putting his back to the wall to mirror Teal'c's ready stance on the opposite side of the tent flap. Jack indulges the moment of pride even as his own hands settle on his P-90 – not in firing stance, but prepared to be. These people seem peaceful, at least to their presence, but being separated immediately by the locals has enough bad connotations to put them all on edge.

The woman who enters is the same one who escorted them in here an hour ago. Like all the natives she has obviously Native American features, though it seems to be a muddle of different tribes: Daniel identified a half dozen different indicators from the language and cultural signals before they were herded in here. She's as tall as Jack, dark-haired and well-built under her ornate leather armor, but at least now she's missing the recurve bow and nasty looking knife from when they met near the gate. That's a good sign, because he gets the distinct feeling which way the odds would go if he had to take her on.

He relaxes his stance, releases his weapon; sees Teal'c and Daniel do the same.

"You may come out now," she says, as if she knows they were seconds from pointing guns at her and is… amused? "Your woman is with the elders of our tribe. She has explained your purpose here. You are welcome at our fire, for as long as you wish to stay." She turns to Daniel, then. "If you wish it, you may sit with our shaman and learn of our ways. In the morning, a hunting party goes to the far valley; you are welcome to join them to explore our lands."

Daniel smiles and tips his head. "Thank you."

"We'd like that," Jack adds. 

"Come." She lifts the tent flap under one arm, easily past Teal'c's height. "Your woman says you should come to her at the fire."

Daniel goes out first. Jack jogs the two steps to catch up with him and leans in as subtly as he can. " _Our woman?_ " he murmurs, under his breath. Sam's tried to castrate people for less than that, but then he's never heard another woman try it before.

"It doesn't sound derogatory, or generic," Daniel murmurs back, sotto voce. "On the contrary, it almost sounds like an honorific. The way I'd call you _our leader_." 

Jack slows up. The fire is impressive, well beyond camp- and into bon-, in fact, and the gathered tribe isn't anything to be dismissed either, but that's not what instantly gets his attention. Beside him, he can practically feel Daniel's mouth drop open.

"Well, I don't think you would tonight," he says, and means it sincerely.

Sam is seated on a wide bench that's quite obviously - even to someone without Daniel's anthropological voodoo - a place of high honor, if not the place. She's still in her field gear; her pack – and weapons, he's glad to see – are leaning up against the bench at her back, but she's down to just her short-sleeved t-shirt in the heat of the fire. The hot orange flames reflect on the tags around her neck, turn her hair almost dark, cast her skin in flickering gold. The only things different about her are a decorated leather circlet around her forehead, and the dark patterns painted intricately on her cheeks, arms, hands, neck.

"Wow," Daniel says.

"Beats the hell outta that dress," Jack agrees. It shouldn't, but it does. "Come on, best not keep our woman waiting."

Sam hears them coming, of course, even above the hubbub of the tribe. As they reach her, someone puts down a wide platter at her feet, piled high with rice and greens and some kind of spiced meat that reminds Jack's stomach very suddenly that it's been a long time since lunch and MREs are the stuff of the devil. 

Someone else presses a cup into his hand, another into Daniel's. "Please, sit, eat."

Well, far be it from him to be rude to the nice people.

"Looks like you landed on your feet," he says, taking the empty space on Carter's left. She smiles.

"It beats the usual special treatment, I'll say that." She nods to the cup in his hand. "They let me run some field tests on their consumables. The food's clean, and that water would probably go for five dollars a bottle back on Earth."

"Nice work," he says, and takes a sip. Then a mouthful. 

"These designs…" Daniel reaches out his fingers to Sam's cheek, then seems to think better of it and drops his hand more subtly to the back of her hand instead.

Sam turns her arm over, an obvious invitation. There's something like an arrow painted down the entire inside of her arm, from wrist to elbow, in delicate strokes and sharp lines. "Apparently each one represents something about my power in battle."

Daniel traces a fingertip over the central line of it. "Well, this is probably to augment your aim, or the power of your bow. This is your dominant hand, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is. They asked about that."

"It would be important to put the right symbols in the right places." He reaches over to her other hand, where dozens of interconnected circles flow across the back of her hand and down her wrist. "This probably represents a good aim, too, or maybe speed – number of strikes, or something like that." Suddenly he blinks, that slow deliberate _oh, wait_ expression as if something just connected inside his head, and rubs a finger crosswise over one of the thicker lines. "Um, Sam… what did they paint these on with?"

Jack's brain goes immediately to _toxic_ , dismisses that; jumps to _permanent_ , dismisses that; and ends on _oh, holy hell, you're kidding._

"Don't worry," Sam says, with a wicked smile. "They gave us a private hut for tonight. _Very_ private."

  


* * *

  


**5.**

Jack walks back into Carter's kitchen after a post-post-mission-sex shower to find not what he'd expected – Carter and Daniel either arguing over their current theory about civilisation on P7D-699, inventing a new method of gate travel, fucking on the kitchen table, or all of the above – but instead Daniel pulling his t-shirt back on and drinking coffee while Carter stands with her back to him, talking quietly and reassuringly into her home phone.

He's not one for tact, but he's not an idiot. He steps over to Daniel, keeping his voice down.

"What's going on?"

"Ah, Cassie got her first period." Daniel hands him a mug. "I guess the people on Hanka were a little more superstitious about menstruation, she's pretty freaked out. I think Janet called for reinforcements."

"Yikes." He remembers joking with Sara, when Charlie was born, that at least they'd lucked out of that talk. "Poor kid."

"Yeah." 

"What is it, she thinks it's demonic, or unclean, or something?"

"I don't really know." Daniel herds him back toward the living room. "There was a lot of crying, I couldn't make much out."

"Isn't Carter's due any day now?"

"How's that for timing."

"Sucky," Jack says, honestly. "You think we should do something?"

"I thought about it, but what do you do?"

"I think chocolate is the traditional offering. And heat pads. Drugs, too, though at least the doc can probably handle that part." 

"There's a twenty-four-hour store on the way to Janet's." Daniel gulps down what looks like a good third of his coffee in one mouthful.

"I'll drive." He grabs his keys from the bowl by the door and looks around for where the hell he kicked off his shoes when they came in. Daniel's already digging into a jacket, hopefully his own, presumably for a wallet.

"Here," Daniel tosses his sneakers over from under the coat stand. "I'll write a note-"

"Was it something I said?"

Daniel looks up, a pen already in his hand; Jack drops the shoe and straightens up to see Carter standing there in the middle of the living room with the phone still in her hand, looking a little stressed and a lot bemused.

"You were busy," he says, with a shrug. "We figured…"

"Chocolate," Daniel puts in. "And heat pads."

"But not drugs. Don't want to step on the doc's toes, unless she wants us to grab any on the way."

There isn't even a second's pause – Sam's smile is sudden, and bright, and then pressed against his lips for an intense, lingering kiss that she plants on Daniel just the same, and then she's leaning into them both and shaking her head.

"You guys are amazing, you know that?"

He wraps his arm around her waist. "She's our kid too, Sam."

"She's been through enough," Daniel says. "We thought, at least we could help with this."

"I think Janet's got it under control," she gently pries the car keys from his hand and drops them back in the bowl, "but you can bet I'm going to tell her how you were both racing off into the night for an emergency supply drop." She nestles into him, pulling Daniel in closer too, still smiling like they've just solved some crazy equation or come back from the dead, again. "Cassie's gonna be okay. It's just scary, the first time it happens, even with all the sex ed in the world and no weird Hankan superstitions to deal with."

"Were you scared?" Daniel asks it as if he can make it better if she was, somehow, because of course he would try. Jack reaches up and pets his hair affectionately, and Sam smiles indulgently at him.

"Less scared than my dad. He _freaked_ out. It was kind of hilarious, now that I think about it."

The thought of Jacob Carter trying to deal with a teenage Sam on her first period is not one he thought he'd ever have, but it makes him laugh anyway. "I bet you were precocious at that age, weren't you?"

Sam laughs, too. "Oh, I was probably unbearable. Janet's getting off easily." 

Daniel smiles, but with concern still on his face. "You sure she'll be okay?"

"I'm sure. Anyway, you already helped. Do you know what Cassie was most scared of?" 

"No." Daniel frowns. "What?"

Sam gives him a patient look. "She's thirteen, Daniel."

"Ahh," Jack says, sagely. "Boys."

"I bet _you_ were an unholy terror at that age," Daniel says, with great and sudden certainty.

"I wouldn't have let me within thirty feet of Cassie, that's for sure." He looks back at Sam. "This one of those weird Hankan superstitions?"

"Probably her hysterical memory of it, with a decent helping of good old Earth taboos and teenage angst in the mix. You name it, she'd thrown it in there – everyone will think she's dirty, she'll have to live a week a month in seclusion from now on, she'll never have a boyfriend because no one will want to touch her..."

"Jeez." It's all second hand, but he hugs Sam tighter anyway, since he can't exactly reach Cass right now. "That's crazy."

"Menstruation taboos are one of the most pervasive across all human cultures," Daniel says. "It's not surprising they travelled to other worlds along with the rest of their local mythos. And it's still ridiculous, when you consider that half the planet menstruates at some point or other."

"That's what I told Cass. She had a hard time believing it in the abstract, but not when I told her how I know she'll be just fine." Sam gives them both that shining smile again. "Because I have two boyfriends, right here, who would never think those things about me or not want to touch me, or think any differently about me, whatever time of the month it is. And she believed that about you guys without question."

"'Boyfriends' still sounds weird," he says, because it's easier around the lump in his throat than _do you even know how amazing you are_. "Don't you think?"

"Definitely weird," Daniel agrees, and obviously means _I don't think she ever does_. 

Sam laughs and kisses his cheek. "I love you guys. Come on, my coffee got cold."

  


* * *

  



End file.
